TRADE unionists and Labour politicians are due to pay tribute to a County Durham-born union leader this Friday.

Family, friends and colleagues are attending a memorial service for Joe Mills, who died last month after a long illness, in Sunderland Minster at 2pm.

Mr Mills, 68, who was brought up at New Kyo, near Stanley, but lived for many years in Sunderland, was a former chairman of the Northern Regional Labour party and regional secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU).

As head of the regional TGWU, he helped secure the selection of Prime Minister Tony Blair as Labour candidate for Sedgefield at the 1983 General Election.

Mr Blair paid tribute to Mr Mills, saying: "Joe was a good friend.

"He dedicated his life to the Labour movement in the North-East, especially as regional secretary of the TGWU, and was in the forefront of modernising the Labour party in the 80s. This is very sad news and he will be missed.''

Mr Mills was also former chairman of Sunderland Health Authority and Priority Healthcare Wearside.

He was co-founder of the Northern Development Company, former deputy chairman of the Port of Tyne Authority, former director of the Tyne and Wear Development Company and former deputy chairman of Northumbria University's board of governors.

He was awarded the OBE in 1995 and presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Law by Sunderland University in the same year.

Mr Mills left a wife, Lirena, and daughters Joanne and Lucy, and had two sons, Adrian and Barry, from a previous marriage.

The family have asked that donations in lieu of flowers be sent to the Northern Centre for Cancer Treatment at Newcastle General Hospital.